In a feeder-distribution interface unit, pairs of telephone lines from individual telephone stations and pairs of wires from a central station (with each wire pair having an assigned telephone number) are terminated at, respectively, feeder terminal boards and distribution terminal boards within the unit. Jumper leads run between the two types of terminal boards to connect the telephone lines for each telephone station to a selected pair of wires from the central station to thereby give a particular telephone number to that telephone station.
Within such unit, the various terminal boards therein are mounted in panels. Each panel comprises (a) a rectangular frame comprising two long side rails joined at their ends by two end "rungs" and (b) six terminal boards mounted in the space between the side rails. Up to now, the means for mounting the terminal boards has been to provide five additional partitioning rungs disposed between the side rails, and dividing such space into six sub-spaces for the six boards, and to fasten each board by three screws on each of two opposite sides thereof to two of such rungs. The use, however, of such additional rungs is disadvantageous in the respect that the rungs themselves are expensive, and further costs are incurred in securing the ends of such rungs to the two side rails. Moreover, the described technique of screw-fastening the terminal boards to the rungs requires thirty-six (36) screws and is disadvantageous because of the cost of (and the time and effort taken to install) that inordinately large number of screws. If the screws are self tapping and inserted into holes in boards of plastic material, the tapping action of the screws creates around such holes a hoop stress likely to produce splitting and cracking of the plastic material.